Sunday, September 26, 2004
Hey But I’m Smilin”!
A Happy Birthday to my younger “old “ Brother (Gene). He is a whole 65 today. Still over the road driving and a joke teller going strong. My card to him had a Dalmation on the front and the text said, Don’t worry about the candles this year! You open it up and a siren of a fire engine sounds and the text is, I got it under control!! Worth every penny to see him smile when he read it.
Cindyism is back on line and a welcome surprise that is!
I took pictures of the SES picnic yesterday and spent a great four hours going from group to group speaking to everyone and trying valiantly to remember each name. It helped that my Hubby worked with these people too for a while. It can get difficult when you have worked with hundreds of people in several different offices and different Companies in your lifetime. One of the women that I spoke to, Jay asked later who it was. It took coming home after my brother’s party before it finally came to me. It gets kinda scary when things just don’t pop up immediately. One of my friends that I hadn’t seen in a while made it to the picnic for a few minutes, she couldn’t stay due to a previous engagement. My other friend didn’t make it. But next year someone is going to pick her up and bring her out.
Now it is back to the Christmas Projects, ‘The Dark Tower Book IV’, the cardboard to cut up, and a little mopping in the kitchen! I plan to sit down with Jay this afternoon and try to decide on some recipe/menu items to fight the salt problem. I hope with his help it won’t seem so overwhelming. Must be gettin’ old or lazy!! Hey but i’m smilin’!
Wednesday, September 22, 2004
The Latest!
The first visit to the kidney doctor yesterday and an ultra sound today for the better half meant no work with the yarn but I did get a little farther in ‘Dark Tower IV’. Now we concentrate on cutting out the salt in Jay’s diet. I will do my very best but when I think what do I buy or cook I am coming up with a big question mark right now. But we will learn this method (like the sugar control thing)too.
Monday Sweet Thing came up for a short visit and we patched the old blue jeans for the first time. But the good news was that she was able to buy a new pair off the rack! This is something she hasn’t been able to do in a very long time. The notches on her belt reflect a good sign too. Her attitude is more upbeat than it has been in a while. All in all I think we can safely say she is pulling her life together.
A comment from Mrs DoF brought a good memory to the front of the mind recently. She had said something about helping to give a birthday party at a nursing home and how she enjoyed it. I remembered the time that Sweet Thing (Sunset), Shane (QT) my clowning partners and I did a party at a nursing home in Waterford. We made balloon animals and did skits. It was fun but a little sad at the same time.
Went to Sam’s Club today for the usual staples but I made the mistake of going into the book section. Bad news for the pocketbook ! I finally bought Dan Brown’s other novel that is on the best seller list--’Angles And Demons’. Also Patricia Cornwell’s ‘Trace’ and Stephen King’s ‘Dark Tower’ book VII. There is now three Reader’s Digest Select Books waiting and I still haven’t pick up Deaver’s ‘Twisted’. So I guess I have to hurry up with the Christmas projects so I can get back to feeding the reading habit again.
My younger brother, Gene, will be 65 on Sunday and even though he is four years younger than me I will still kid the dickens out of him.
Our 2nd annual SES (Service Evaluation System From Michigan Bell-Ameritec days) picnic is this Saturday and I am hoping two of my old friends will be there. I have been in contact with both of them right along but have not seen them in quite a while. Now that I have my camera I plan to be busy with it.
Well even if the washer doesn’t signal it is done I know it is time to haul everthing out and stuff it in the dryer. The dishwasher is loaded but not started. The birds are covered for the night and Molly just came up out of the basement. It is almost bedtime and all is right in Momma’s Corner. Good night everyone!
Monday, September 20, 2004
Gonna Be A Bear
Click to embiggen.
Thanks to Sally Hamilton and Pam Luttenberger for passing this along to me!
Sunday, September 19, 2004
Molly And ‘Clean Sweep’
Having breakfast with Molly! Every morning when we sit down to eat there is a small scrabble sound from the utility room, then the sound of something hitting the floor, and this is followed by a crunching sound. A visual check of the area confirms our suspicions--Molly is having breakfast with us. She meticulously reaches into the dish and pulls out one piece of food at a time. If two should happen to fall out she will eat both before reaching in again. I notice that she is starting to join us at supper time too.
Well I finished one of the Christmas gifts yesterday and two remain. I have started both so I could change off from knit to crochet to change which hand and arm muscles get used. Of course the reading is suffering, not to mention the inch and !/2 of dust laying all over everything except what breathes and moves.
From the bathrooms I hear the porcelain thrones crying for a Lysol bath and the tub calls out for the Ajax and Clean Shower treatment. It is time to vacumn again and the kitchen floor could use a mopping because we put up 17 pints of spiced pears last Thursday. Not near the mess we had before but it still needs a little TLC. I recall Jay mentioned something about a dipping sauce made with plums and peaches--you want to lay odds that we will be putting that up next!!
I was in the basement yesterday rearranging one area to put out craft paints, glue, sprakles, etc. I empty 7 assorted size boxes that need to be cut up and tied for recycle day in about a week. I hope to get back down there and clear off my work bench so I can take stock of the wood, patterns, plaster forms, wire, and kits of doll houses and furniture There are also embroidery projects, hook rugs, paint kits to either do or give away. I didn’t realize I had so much accumulated over the years. I feel like if I don’t great cracking I’m going to need ‘Clean Sweep’ at my house!!!
Thursday, September 16, 2004
From Red And Orange, Knit And Purl, To Manipulate And Lie!
Today just a few little items to talk about.
I spoke with Sweet Thing yesterday. She told me about her first day in computer class. Her teacher asked if she wanted to move to the next class because she seemed to know much of what this class covered. She replied that she really wanted to start at the beginning to pick up the things she didn’t know and reinforce what she did. That was a good judgement call.
I picked up’ Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing’ because everything I type takes one finger. My first try was eight wpm and a 77% accuracy!! Wow! But even as I sit here now I feel the ‘asdf’ thing using the right fingers coming on!! So there is hope for me yet!
I started with the crochet hook and the knitting needles again in preparation of the need for Christmas gifts. I figured as long as the hands and arms work it would be a shame not to create something. So I may not be around to visit as often as I should but I’ll try for every couple of days!
The pears we bought last Friday are spread out on the counter to ripen a little more before canning but it is going very slow. I sometimes wonder if pears just don’t like me because my sucess rate in canning is 0%.
Another Jenkins hits the blogging trail ! D.J. Pickle (my grandson) has started a gaming information/discussion blog in Jenkinsonline domain.
Now we can truly say we cover from ages 11 to amost 70--.
I’m about a third of the way through book 1V of ‘The Dark Tower’ but that may fall by the wayside until the crafts are done.
Well the yellow, red, and orange are peeking the tree branches in the yard and the evening has a hint of coolness to remind me that like me 2004 is getting on!
I hope that you, like me are taking a few moments out each day to think about the people in service overseas who belong at home and how they got there. Please think about voting in November. We need to change the direction this nation is headed in. We need to watch for the amazing capture that people say will happen before the election and if it does happen think about how true the details of it are. Since the voting fiasco in Florida four years ago my heart and head have said “Don’t trust them, they manipulate and lie!”
Tuesday, September 14, 2004
Pissed Off!
From the Flint Journal on Monday. This is what pisses me off! Not the cartoon but the fact that it depicts where our jobs went!!! Click to embiggen.
Monday, September 13, 2004
1/2 + 1/2 = A Happy Life Together
A phone call from California 14 years ago, my son telling me his wedding would be on September the 15th, could Jay and I be there. Wedding?! Marriage?! Wes?! Who?! OK son, we will be there.
The bride is Debra, but I don’t know her! What will she think of us? Will she like us and the rest of the family? Lots of questions, lots of worry! But that all changed the day we arrived for the wedding. I could give you a bunch of adjectives to describe her. Red-headed, beautiful, intelligent, warm, caring, but I’ll sum it up with I loved her from the very beginning.
Now they have been married for 14 years. There have been good years and very thin years, but they stuck it out and worked hard to make it work. They are the great example of two halves coming together to make a whole.
To wish you a Happy Anniversary is understood--To wish you many more years together is our greatest hope.
Sunday, September 12, 2004
Farewell To Cindyisms
A notice on a Jenkins Online blog and an email yesterday brought very disturbing news. Sweet Thing (my daughter), known to the readers here as Cindyisms’ creator, has decided to quit blogging for good.
This saddens me greatly because her humor was great, her advice sound, and her ability to reach out to several different types of people was excellent.
Her reasons for quitting are her own, but I, and I am sure many other readers, will miss her sharp wit and unique subjects.
Saturday, September 11, 2004
9/11
Shed your tear
But don’t live in fear
Remembering what happened then.
Work for peace
From terror, release
Our beliefs, our rights defend.
With honest mind
Find ALL who lied
Use Justice to bring their end.
Thursday, September 09, 2004
A Thought
I read a quote today by Jacob Braude, writer, that brought a few memories to mind. He said, “Consider how hard it is to change yourself and you’ll understand what little chance you have of trying to get others to change.”
Relationships with friends, with family, in business, and in marriage are often entered into under less than perfect circumstances. We analyze the conditions or person that cause concern and then dismiss them with the thought that we can change the situation for the better. When we fail to do so we wonder where we went wrong and why can’t this person see that we are only trying to help them? We see ourselves as saviors, but others see us as meddlers and controllers trying to interrupt their lives.
So we stew, worry, and try to find a way to change what we feel is wrong. What we should be doing is looking to see if what we need to change is ourselves or them, analyzing if we should change, and how difficult would it be to change. In doing that we discover that maybe we don’t have to change, that it wouldn’t help us to do so, and we lift a burden from ourselves that we should not have carried in the first place.
We need to love and support each individual as an individual and not try to carve them into something we think is correct because what makes them unique is the fact that they are different.
In personal relationships if the situation is unbearable then don’t involve yourself too deep in it. If you are in too deep, start crawling out. It will take time and courage, but in the long run your happiness and sanity will improve. In business you have to look for something else and then walk away.
We all fear starting over, but some of us have experienced it several times and survived to live a more satisfying life.